Mayor reveals location of London’s first 20 new public water fountains

28 August 2018

• Sites include Horniman and Natural History Museums, St Thomas’ & Guy’s hospitals, Windrush Square and Sidcup town centre
• Average Londoner buys at least three plastic water bottles every week

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has confirmed the locations of the first 20 new public water fountains he is funding in busy stations, shopping centres, museums, business districts and othervenues across London.

The fountains are part of the Mayor’s work to cut plastic waste by reducing single-use plastic bottles and instead encouraging people to refill rather than buy bottled water.

Four of the fountains have already been installed – atHeart of Valentines Park, Redbridge, Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street, Westminster,and two at Liverpool Street Station – and are proving popular.

More than 8,000 litres of drinking water, the equivalent of 16,000 water bottles, has been dispensed from the Liverpool Street Station fountains in less than one month. The Kingly Court fountain, off Carnaby Street, one of London’s busiest shopping areas, has been used more than 10,000 times a month this summer.

The Mayor has worked with theZoological Society of London’s(ZSL) #OneLess campaign to secure the locations of the fountains. ZSL assessed the site applications on accessibility, visibility and footfall to ensure water refills are available for as many Londoners as possible. The Mayor partnered with MIW Water Cooler Experts on a London Drinking Fountain Fund to provide up to £85,000 to finance the installation of fountains.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Water fountains are a simple but effective way to encourage Londoners and visitors to ditch plastic bottles and instead refill reusable ones. With the hot weather we’ve seen this summer, the demand is greater than ever for quick and easy ways of accessing free drinking water and I’m pleased to confirm the locations for the first 20 of our new public water fountains. Some of these are already attracting thousands of visitors a day and City Hall are working on plans to secure many more across London.”

Dr Heather Koldewey,#OneLess campaign Director and Head of Marine and Freshwater Conservation at ZSL said:“We were taken aback by the number of applications we received to install drinking fountains across London. There is definitely huge appetite in London to stop using single-use plastic and establish a new culture of refilling. We are delighted to be working with the Mayor of London on this exciting initiative to reduce the plastic blight on the ocean and firmly establish London as a city that no longer uses plastic bottled water.”

The locations of the fountains were confirmed as statistics compiled by ZSL’sOneLess campaign estimatedthat the average Londoner buys more than three plastic water bottles a week – 175 bottles a year. In the whole of the UK, some 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought every year.

The drinking water fountains will provide a free alternative to drinking high-sugar carbonated drinks, and support the Mayor's package of measures to cut child obesity, which also include proposals to ban advertisements for unhealthy food and drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar across the entire Transport for London (TfL) estate.

The Mayor also supports Refill London, which has so far recruited over 2,000 London shops, businesses, venues and cafes including Costa, Tate Modern, BFI Imax and Leon to provide free tap water to members of the public and isa partnership between City to Sea, Mayor of London and Thames Water.

Refill London ran a tap bar at this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival with volunteers on hand to help people fill up their own bottles with free water.

The Mayor is working with partners on plans to install further fountains over the next three years.

Notes to editors

• The Mayor is encouraging businesses, shops and venues to join Refill London and offer free tap water to the public. To join the scheme visit the Refill websitewww.refill.org.uk. Google Maps has also joined the ‘refill revolution’. Businesses can now add ‘free water refill’ to their listings, to help people find free water refill stations in London.

• The following water fountains will be installed subject to applicants finalising commitments: Guy's Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital, Swiss Cottage Open Space, Camberwell Green, Nisbett Walk, Natural History Museum, South St Alban's Street, The London School of Economics and Political Science. Four of the 20 fountains have been installed already and the16 others are expected to come on stream this year.

• The average adult in London buys more than three plastic water bottles every week - a startling 175 bottles every year. In total, some 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste (stats from ZSL)

• The #OneLess campaign has been leading the charge against ocean plastic pollution since 2016, focusing on the pervasive single-use plastic water bottle. #OneLess is creating a ‘refill revolution’ in London, transforming the capital into a place where single-use bottled water is a thing of the past and where ‘refilling’ rules. #OneLess is led by the Zoological Society of London, in partnership with Forum for the Future, The International Programme on the State of the Ocean, and the Thames Estuary Partnership and is working with a series of major London attractions, including London Zoo, major sporting venues, landowners, such as Broadgate Estates, and businesses, to find and implement solutions to enable a refill culture. For more information visit www.onelessbottle.org

• Founded in 1826, ZSL (Zoological Society of London) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. Our mission is realised through our ground-breaking science, our active conservation projects in more than 50 countries and our two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. For more information visit www.zsl.org.

· MIW Water Cooler Experts is one of the largest independent suppliers of water coolers in the UK. Formed in 1989, MIW now supplies over 7,000 schools and businesses nationwide with high quality water coolers and drinking fountains. For more than quarter of a century MIW has been developing and building innovative, high quality water coolers and drinking fountains. MIW also partners many of the UK’s leading architects & construction companies in providing drinking fountains for their clients.www.miw.co.uk